Chelsea player ratings: Rudiger star man with two goals in solid defensive display but Pedro does not justify inclusion – The Sun

ANTONIO RUDIGER was the Chelsea hero on his 100th Chelsea appearance.

He stepped up with two headers in the second half from Mason Mount's deliveries either side of goals from Harvey Barnes and Ben Chilwell.

Willy Caballero and Pedro were the surprise inclusions from the beginning and neither covered themselves in glory at the King Power.

Tammy Abraham was not at his sharpest after being rushed back from injury – his afternoon was not helped by having to come up against the Leicester pairing of Caglar Soyuncu and Jonny Evans.

Here's how SunSport's Joshua Jones rated Frank Lampard's men…

Willy Caballero – 6

A bold decision from Lampard to drop Kepa and bring in Caballero, the oldest starter in the Premier League this season.

Got down well to deny Jamie Vardy, a really smart save with his feet, and could do nothing about Barnes' deflected goal which agonisingly looped into the far corner.

But then had a rush of blood to chase Chilwell's cross before realising he could not get there and simply did not recover into position by the time the left-back scored.

Reece James – 7

Was Chelsea's biggest threat going forward and showed his defensive capabilities through his ongoing battle with Barnes.

Judging by the quality of some of his deliveries today, James' crossing is not a million miles away from Trent Alexander-Arnold's.

Unfortunate that it was via his boot that Barnes scored Leicester's equaliser.

Andreas Christensen – 4

Was put under pressure by the hustling and harrying Vardy throughout and forced into a couple of errors.

Can could himself very very lucky to have got away with a shocking piece of defending, letting Evans run free at a corner – only for the Leicester man to head off target from close range.

Antonio Rudiger – 8

Made the perfect start to the second half by nodding in at the back post to score his first goal since October 2018 and give his side the lead.

Then got his second when he planted a splendid header back across goal and inside the far post – giving him 20 minutes to complete his hat-trick on his 100th Chelsea appearance. Rounded off his dominant performance with a perfect sliding tackle in the corner.

Cesar Azpilicueta – 5

Got down the left well early on but Hudson-Odoi could not convert his chance.

Spent most of his game trying to deal with Ayoze Perez down the Leicester right.

N'Golo Kante – 5

Back on the ground where he broke on to the world scene, playing a huge part in Leicester's Premier League glory in 2015/16.

Scored in Chelsea's 2-1 win at the King Power in September 2017 but did not have quite as much impact this time around and will be disappointed the game passed him by in large parts.

Jorginho – 4

Like Kante, not as influential as he would have liked in the middle of the park.

Picked up his ninth yellow card of the season when he cynically kicked out at Maddison, who had done him with a neat set of stepovers.

Mason Mount – 7

Deployed in the No10 role with Mateo Kovacic left out but struggled to assert his creative influence on the first half.

However, the second half was a different story as he grabbed both assists.

It was from his corner that Rudiger opened the scoring and the two combined once again when the centre-back got his second from Mount's free-kick.

Callum Hudson-Odoi – 5

Started brightly on the Chelsea right as he came up against Chilwell.

Looked dangerous with some exciting runs but there was very little end product from the youngster.

Tammy Abraham – 5

A surprise starter considering Lampard admitted he is still in pain from his ankle injury sustained at Arsenal.

And looked off the pace by fluffing his lines with two good chances. Soyuncu tried to bully him as much as possible, physically dominating the striker.

Pedro – 3

Drew a rare sliding tackle from Jonny Evans in the first half to win a free-kick.

But in truth did nothing to show why he was given a starting spot at all and was rightly replaced by Willian – the only surprise was that he lasted 74 minutes.

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